The Algerian coach is set to leave his position after the tournament, having endured a long-running battle with some sections of the media. But after Tuesday’s performance there was only respect and admiration for him and his players.

The headline in Le Soir d’Algerie said simply “Thank you for everything” under a picture of the disconsolate players. A front page editorial said: “Algeria left the World Cup with a new aureole on its head. They fought like lions and deserve all our congratulations. Now, we must strengthen the ranks of the heroic 11 and continue to offer it all means. It was a great World Cup for us.”

Le Buteur, which had run the headline “Tactical bankruptcy by Vahid!” , after the defeat by Belgium in their opening World cup game, revealed that 37,000 people had signed a petition to persuade Halilhodzic to remain as coach within hours of the game finishing, and was fulsome in its respect for the Serbian. “The national coach, like his players, was shot at the final whistle,’ they wrote. “Halilhodzic could not hold back his tears and looked completely destroyed following this defeat, having believed firmly in the ability of his team to turn things around and take the Germans to a shootout. The most moving moment at the end of the match was undoubtedly the scene where almost all the players came to greet their coach and thank him for everything. Although dejected, Halilhodzic nevertheless paid tribute to the public warmly greeting before returning to the locker room. Obviously, the Algerian fans did not stop chanting the name Vahid.”

Liberté said the Algeria players were brilliant but they were undone by the wealth of experience in Joachim Löw’s side and the “cold realism” that Germany are always victorious in the end. Their report began: “‘Football is a game of 11 against 11 and in the end the Germans always win,’ the Englishman Gary Lineker said in a quote that has become legendary. The sentence applied in Porto Alegre yesterday when Algeria v Germany illustrated the beautiful but cruel uncertainty of sport. Algeria deserved a better fate than an exit which inevitably will leave big regrets that they missed out on something monumental or unreal, but the national team left the Brazilian World Cup with sword in hand and head high.”

In Germany most of the media were just thankful they had progressed. Berliner Zeitung said: ‘You play [the] German [way]: Bad defence. A giant in goal and somehow the ball goes in. 2-1. Main thing: we’re through.”